Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• GRS AH 867: Material Culture
  Introduction to the theory and practice of the interdisciplinary study of material culture, which includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Explores contemporary scholarship from a range of disciplines. Also offered as GRS AM 867.
• GRS AH 887: Seminar: American Art
  Topic for Spring 2020: Visual Culture of the American Frontier. This course explores the ways that American artists interpreted the social life, economic potential, and violent transformation of the nation's shifting borders during the long nineteenth century.
• GRS AH 891: Seminar: Photography
  Historical, archival, and theoretical examinations of photography, with emphasis on its role both as document and as art. Topic for Fall 2019: The Photographic Book. Examines the photographic book throughout the years from 1839 to the present. We will concentrate on the book as a unique form for the medium, and study image/text relationships, narrative structures, and the cultural constructions of the book's message.
• GRS AH 893: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Architecture
  Topic for Fall 2019: Evidence and Narrative. This seminar examines how art and architectural history, plus other disciplines, gather evidence and employ narrative, both conventionally and in innovative practices. Using texts from a range of fields, the seminar applies its insights towards students' own research and writing.
• GRS AH 895: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Art
  Topic for Spring 2020: Section A1 - Art and Society: Contemporary Commemorative Art in Latin America. This seminar studies symbolic reparations within the Inter-American human rights system and relates it to commemorative artistic practices. It raises questions about the values and limitations of art for social healing in contexts of gross violations of human rights. Section W1 - Theories of the Avant-Garde. Examines the legacy and critical reception of neo- avant-garde art practices since World War II. Considers international critics, artists, and curators associated with a revival of themes first explored by the historical avant-gardes.
• GRS AM 735: Studies in American Culture
  Introduction to handling of primary materials from a number of disciplines in order to develop an American Studies perspective. Required of all American Studies PhD students.
• GRS AM 736: The Literature of American Studies
  Introduction to classic problems in the interpretation of American society and culture. Required of all American Studies PhD students.
• GRS AM 867: Material Culture
  Introduction to the theory and practice of the interdisciplinary study of material culture, which includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Explore contemporary scholarship from a range of disciplines. Also offered as GRS AH 867.
• GRS AN 701: Cross-Cutting Perspectives in Anthropology
  An examination of current and historical perspectives across sub-disciplines of Anthropology: Social Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, and Archaeology. Explores how methodologies, theories and interpretations have changed as disciplines have developed. Emphasizes group learning to facilitate exchange of ideas across the sub-disciplines.
• GRS AN 703: History of Theory and Practice in Anthropology
  An intensive introduction to the foundations of the discipline focusing on classic works from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. A critical analysis of the development of the discipline of anthropology, its subfields, literature, history, and contemporary research problems.
• GRS AN 704: Proseminar: Contemporary Anthropological Theory
  Examination of major theoretical trends and debates in anthropological theory from the 1960s to present.
• GRS AN 705: Graduate Proseminar in Anthropology: the Biological and Historical Past
  Examination of major contributions and debates in biological anthropology focusing on humanity's place in the natural world. Topics include evolutionary theory, fossil and living primates, human evolution, historical demography, human life histories, and the relationship between biology and culture.
• GRS AN 707: Turkey & Middle East Perspective (Area)
  Social and cultural diversity of the modern Middle East with particular attention to Turkey. Focus on the interplay of traditions and socio-economic changes that have occurred during the 20th century and their implications for the future.
• GRS AN 708: Food, Culture, and Society
  Study of foodways, culinary social history, diet and food ecology with special attention to Asian societies and Boston's food culture. Examines the use of food and cuisine as a focus for identity, national development, and social change.
• GRS AN 709: Boston: An Ethnographic Approach
  An anthropological study of Boston using the city as a site of recovery and discovery as students develop ethnographic skills and an understanding of the interplay between geography, history, and demography in the social mapping of urban spaces.
• GRS AN 710: Studies in North American Ethnography
  A survey including an appreciation of the traditional background and heritage of native North Americans, an analysis of the history and contact with Europeans and governmental policies, and an examination and evaluation of the contemporary situation.
• GRS AN 715: Being Indian in Latin America
  The Indian image in literature and historical accounts; conquerors and Latinos in Indian ritual and mythology. Indian communities and the reality of being an Indian in present-day Latin America: exploitation, discrimination, and class. Indian rebellions and pressure groups. Colonization and lowland Indians.
• GRS AN 718: Southeast Asia: Tradition and Development
  Provides an in-depth introduction to the cultural traditions and contemporary development of Southeast Asia. Examines the contemporary society and culture through the optic of political and cultural history, so as to understand the "imaginative revolutions" that have shaped this region and are transforming it still today.
• GRS AN 719: Anthropology of Muslim Cultures and Politics
  Examines Muslim societies' ongoing struggle over the forms and meanings of Muslim culture and politics, as well as its implications for religious authority, gender ideals, and new notions of citizenship, civil society, and democracy. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Historical Consciousness
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
• GRS AN 720: Women in the Muslim World
  A cross-cultural approach to the diversity and complexity of women's lives in the Muslim world, including the United States. Looks at issues such as gender equality, civil society and democracy, sex segregation and sexual politics, kinship and marriage, and veiling. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry I, Research and Information Literacy.

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